MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. The Board of Directors of the Bank of Russia will make a decision on the key interest rate at a meeting later in the day. All 23 experts interviewed by TASS expect the regulator to keep the rate at 14% per annum.

The scope for lowering the rate is constrained by persistently high inflation, the secondary effects of rising fuel costs, and utility tariff hikes, as well as the fiscal stimulus expected toward the end of the year, according to analysts.

At its previous meeting in September, the Bank of Russia decided for the first time since June 2025 not to lower the key interest rate, maintaining it at 14% per annum. The regulator pointed then to an acceleration in the underlying growth of prices, reaching an annualized rate of 5-6%, primarily due to the impact of a temporary reduction in production capacity across certain sectors. At the same time, the Central Bank noted that the Russian economy was growing at a moderate pace in the third quarter of 2026.

According to experts surveyed, the available data point to the interest rate to be maintained at 14%. That said, some participants do not rule out a 25-basis-point cut, though they do not consider this the base case scenario.